Giving Everyone a Chance
As a teacher, then GRCC trustee, Olivia Margo Anderson worked to ensure access to education.
Life sometimes moves forward before shifting back to the beginning.
Former trustee Olivia Margo Anderson passed away in July at the age of 81, but not without knowing how much her years of dedication to education, diversity, inclusion and Grand Rapids Community College were appreciated.
Teaching was a career goal from early childhood. Anderson’s parents didn’t attend college but instilled in her a lifelong passion for education. After graduating from South High School in 1959, she enrolled at GRJC.
“My memory of being at Grand Rapids Junior College was the excitement, the beginning, the foundation,” she said. “It was the most rewarding, particularly – and I’m speaking as an African American female – because it gives everyone a chance. And that’s what I like so much about it.”
From GRJC, she transferred to Western Michigan University, where she would later earn master’s degrees in elementary education, counseling and personnel, and educational leadership.
She worked in Grand Rapids Public Schools for 32 years as a teacher, counselor and principal at Creston
High School and Buchanan, Alger and Jefferson elementary schools.
“Kids have an uncanny way of knowing if you are genuine or not,” she said. “Kids know if you really mean what you say and whether you really like them, or you’re really trying. They can see through people who are fake. I think if you’re genuine and you’re there for the right reason, kids know.”
After retiring from K-12 education, she turned her attention to her alma mater, winning election to GRCC’s board of trustees in 2001.
“I was approached to consider running for the board, and then, after my first term, I loved it so much I ran my own campaign,” she said.
Anderson served until 2014, serving as board chairperson and in several other leadership roles.
“Margo Anderson changed generations of lives by working to ensure that education was within reach of all students,” current board Chair David Koetje said upon hearing of her death.
“She was determined to increase access to life-changing education and making a difference in her community.”
She also served on the boards of the YWCA, Women’s History Council and Grand Rapids Urban League. She received a YWCA Tribute Award in 2006 and the Phyllis Scott Activist GIANT Award in 1991. She was honored at the Kent County Black Caucus “Community Legends” lunch in 2021.
At the 2023 GRCC commencement, she accepted the Distinguished Alumni Award to thunderous applause.
“The people you meet, the experiences you have – all of them build on a better life,” she said. “And so for me to be the Distinguished Alumna is just the epitome of an honor.”
Page 8 of 23